Ring of Fire Bungling...I think NOT.

Gee...Seems the columnist's approach here in the article below is that just because we all live in the same Province that anything our neighbour has on his/her property should be shared with the rest of us Ontarians, or in this case Indigenous groups. It's as if he is saying, "Pay no heed to your neighbours boundary. Just lay claim on whatever they have in their backyard, as if it was your own". You can blame the government all you want there Steve (columnist), but it is the respective First Nations who are conducting business with the Ontario government who are quite happy leaving their neighbouring breathern out of the private talks they are having. Not the other way around. Because, frankly, what they do in their respective jurisdictions is no one else's business but their own. Jealousy....Yes, I think so.

May: Ring of Fire bungling jeopardizes Green prosperity for North

Published on: May 18, 2019 | Last Updated: May 18, 2019 11:24 AM EDT Buried beneath the feet of Northern Ontarians are the materials that will drive the green economy. Nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium are needed in abundance for batteries that will store electric energy. The world is already shifting from greenhouse gas-emitting fossil energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas in an effort to minimize the very worst effects of climate change. Northern Ontario, with our abundant mineral resources, is strategically positioned to be a global leader in the clean economy.

Leadership requires commitment – and that’s always been a problem for Northern Ontario, a vast but sparsely populated region that is far too often treated as a resource colony by governments and investors located in southern Ontario. Our region’s mineral wealth is far too often seen as resources ripe for exploitation, rather than as the building blocks for our own prosperity.

Earlier this month, Northerners were excited to hear that Noront Resources had selected Sault Ste. Marie as a home for its ferrochrome smelter to process chromite extracted from the Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario. It sounds like progress, but the truth is the Ring of Fire, a $60-billion project, remains stalled – and likely will be for some time as Ontario’s new government is walking away from engagement with the Indigenous people who live in the region.

The Ring of Fire is located in the traditional territory of the nine Matawa First Nations. In 2014, the Matawa tribal council and the province entered into a regional framework agreement that set out the parameters for discussions related to development. But any goodwill stemming from these negotiations evaporated quickly. Last year, Eabametoong First Nation Chief Elizabeth Atlookan accused the government of playing a game of “divide and conquer” by moving forward with projects, like road construction, in a piecemeal fashion, absent consultation with all Matawa nations.

The desire to compartmentalize the development of the Ring of Fire and other resource extraction projects in the remote north has long been a sore point for Indigenous communities and environmentalists. Rather than planning for development in a comprehensive manner that assesses all impacts on the natural and social environments, the province has pushed a piecemeal approach that evaluates components of development independently from one another. It’s a 20th-century colonial approach that no longer works in an era of “free, prior and informed consent” as mandated by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

And now Ontario’s new provincial government seems intent on exacerbating the gridlock by repealing the Far North Act. Although First Nations communities have viewed the Far North Act as an imperfect vehicle for making local decisions, it is the only legislative framework in place to guide development in the region. The Far North Act’s repeal will leave Indigenous communities even further out of the decision-making loop.

With Indigenous lands often treated as a resource colony ripe for exploitation by government and industry, First Nation communities know that their own future prosperity is put at risk by government decisions that exclude them from decision making. Without a firm commitment of true government-to-government negotiations, the only recourse for First Nations will be to pursue their rights through the judicial system – a process that could delay development for decades.

Significant time has already been lost due to the intransigence of governments in Toronto and Ottawa to work with the people who live in the region and by failing to comprehensively plan for development in Ontario’s remote north. With the world knocking at our door, clamouring for the materials needed for the green economy, all of the North’s communities – Indigenous and settler – are at risk of losing out on the opportunity of being a world leader.